Off We Go...er...um... Went.

Almost Two Years Later:

Hurricane Sandy was bearing down on the Middle Atlantic States region of the east coast. It was Halloween day, we spent the previous months preparing ourselves for the big adventure. We closed up our houses, said our goodbyes and shoved off from our slip at Port Williams Marina in Annapolis, MD.

The trip down the bay was a quick one, with lots of left over wind from Sandy and before we knew it we were in Hampton, VA. The run down the ICW was an easy but long trip, taking us nearly a month to get down to Fort Lauderdale. We met many like-minded people along the way, except that it became apparent that we were the minority of those who were actually still working.

Two simple lessons:

It's no fun working while trying to live the dream, but you gotta pay the bills. Though we couldn't always go snorkeling,  fishing, or get to the beach party, we made the best of the times as we could. Meeting people along the way was usually easy enough to do, we simply had to leave or stay on a more restrictive schedule at times. But we were able to stay at more marinas, and ate out or hung out at the bar more frequent than most.

Moving around is hard work, you might as well start young, while you still have the energy.  The trade off obviously is the cash flow.  It's difficult to save money for retirement while being on a pseudo retirement. Difficult but not impossible.  Remember, cruising can be a relatively inexpensive lifestyle if you're contentious.  The best advice is to have a spending plan and try to make money where and when it makes sense.

Where we've been, are, and will be...

To keep it short; we've bee up and down the coast and ICW 4 times. We've upgraded nearly every system on Lasata, including but not limited to re-powering with a new Yanmar, new standing rigging, new Genoa & Spinnaker,  AND more. We've also made some keel repairs,  and are planning to revisit the keel, and even replace the propeller shaft and cutlass bearing.

So, for now and over the past couple months we've taken up residence in Coconut Grove. Getting to know the people at Coconut Grove Sailing Club ant trying to make new friends.  In the coming months we will haul the boat for the aforementioned work and prepare for another Key West trip and jump to the Dry Tortugas.  By February we will be back in the Bahamas.

I will be blogging here to give tips and cost wise advice to those who are or planning their own cruise. See you soon.